Exclusive: Rotgut Is Coming

You’ve no doubt seen bottles of mezcal con gusano with the worm in them? Maybe you’ve drunk the mezcal from one. Maybe you ate the worm. They told you it was safe, didn’t they? Well, maybe they lied!

Rotgut is a film that spills the alcoholic beans on worm-infested drinks — and the result is a gorefest to bring tears to the eyes of the most devoted piss-head.

Rotgut (US-2011; dir. Billy Garberina)

Synopsis:

A man walks into a bar. It’s not the start of a joke. In this case, it’s the beginning of Rotgut, a new horror film from director Billy Garberina (Necroville, Stiffed, I Heart U) and screenwriter Devin O’Leary (Stiffed, I Heart U). It’s Sunday afternoon and a group of lowlifes, sad-sacks and deadbeats have chosen to waste the day drinking their cares away at the seediest bar in downtown. Unfortunately, a wayward case of bad Mezcal, infected with mutated, brain-eating maggot creatures, has found its way into the watering hole. Now, the least-likely heroes in horror movie history must fight off this slimy infestation.

The film is still in editing stage, but, according to co-producer Devin O’Leary, “is moving forward”.

Distribution will likely be through an established DVD company. We’ve got several interested based on previous releases. Might angle for a few midnight movie screenings in independent theaters before that, though. I do midnight movies at a local theater in Albuquerque and am in contact with several other venues around the US.

The Worms:

Above: Worms on the brain — SFX guy Hank Carlson at work

Above: SFX guy Hank Carlson greases up his large-size worm

On the subject of the monster maggots, O’Leary told Undead Backbrain:

The worm/maggot creatures in the film start out small, tequila-worm-sized. We actually used buckets of real, live mealworms for a lot of that. Once inside their host, they grow, eat their brains and then burst out looking for more food. We have a number of different effects stages — from thumb-sized up to sock-puppet-sized. Hank created some great cable rigs to manipulate the various worms. We’re working with a digital effects artist named Luke Fitch (Fugue State, Black Gold 2051) to produce some even larger full-motion digital creatures for our big finale.

About Whitney Moore:

Whit plays a fairly significant role. It’s pretty much an ensemble piece with all the characters trapped in the bar. She plays a young speed freak who gets stuck there with her white trash boyfriend after they blow a convenience store robbery. (Spoiler: she’s alive for almost all of the movie.) Whitney’s Birdemic fame is a large part of the reason we cast her. Picking through the minefield of awful that was Birdemic, we made a leap-of-faith assumption that she could actually act. Turns out she’s great. Plus, having survived Bridemic, she’s a serious trooper, up for anything. Never complains. Covered in slime, digging around in toilets. She’s game. I expanded one of the other roles in the film (a waitress) in hopes of luring her, but she turned that role down. She wanted the speed freak girlfriend role. Less dialogue, but more challenging. She nailed it in an audition and we gave her the part.

White trash lovers on the run

There should be a Rotgut website up any day now, or so we’re told. Keep your ear to the ground for more information.